A woman was recently caught on camera going through donated items, Goodwill officials said. When she found things that she liked, she popped open her trunk and dropped them in.

"These donations are our lifeline and the amount we discovered that we were losing, we had to resort to spending the money utilizing funds that we could have used for something else," said Stan McCarty, of Goodwill Keystone Area.

Goodwill installed video cameras outside of its donation centers.

"People have the best intentions and they leave the donations at our donation doors after hours thinking that we'll get the donations the next day," said Jennifer Ross of Goodwill Keystone Area.

Goodwill workers said they were arriving the next day finding that the donations had been rifled through or taken away entirely.

"We have video of cars pulling up, people getting out of their cars and literally going to the boxes and the bags, tearing them apart, picking out the things that they want and loading it into their cars," McCarty said.

Goodwill officials said thieves should be warned that every single donation center in South Central Pennsylvania now has surveillance cameras. If they catch people on tape stealing, they will prosecute.

Goodwill said it has no problem prosecuting those who are essentially stealing from those in need.

"The donations help inventory in our stores. Our stores fund programs and services for people with disabilities and people who have barriers to independence," Ross said.

"It is extremely sad that someone would steal from an organization that has a mission such as ours," McCarty said.

To cut down on the thefts, Goodwill is asking anyone making donations to drop them off during business hours and hand them to a volunteer.

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